SEEN FROM ELSEWHERE – Mysterious circular structures made entirely of mammoth bones suggest how humans survived 20,000 years ago during the last ice age.

By LENA

Illustrative photo.Philip FONG / AFP

By Holger Kreitling (Die Welt)

The Russian Kostenki region, located about 500 kilometers south of Moscow, has the appearance of a treasure cave for researchers specializing in the Stone Age. On some 30 square kilometers, they can make all kinds of finds. It all started in 1703. At the time, the Dutch painter and traveler Cornelis de Bruyn had discovered several mammoth tusks and had taken one. Out of curiosity, as he had pointed out.

De Bruyn found it difficult to explain this finding. For him, they were tusks of elephants, the sign that during his trip to India, Alexander the Great may have been there with pachyderms. But the mammoth tusks were actually 10,000 to 20,000 years older.

Treasures of the Paleolithic

What is even more fascinating is what people managed to do with these mammoth bones 20,000 years ago. They stacked them by the hundreds to create circular structures, using them